
SoftBank, OpenAI to Launch Japan AI Joint Venture

According to reports, Japanese technology giant SoftBank Group and OpenAI stepped up their AI partnership by setting up a 50-50 held company called SB OpenAI Japan.
SoftBank Chief Masayoshi Son and OpenAI Chief Sam Altman appeared at an event in Tokyo, talking up their collaboration and inviting Japanese companies to join.
Holding a gleaming blue crystal ball as a symbolic prop, Masayoshi stated that businesses may use its AI service Cristal for emails, marketing, planning, and deciphering ancient source codes.
Cristal will initially be implemented in Son's SoftBank Group businesses, including PayPay, an electronic payment service, and Arm, a semiconductor and software company. According to SoftBank, the company would invest $3 billion annually to integrate Cristal throughout its businesses.
“This will be super-intelligence for the company. I’m so excited,” says Masayoshi.
Sam talked about the just-announced 'deep research,' which allows ChatGPT to carry out more complicated tasks, including preparing reports by browsing the web and finding thousands of sources far more quickly than a human worker.
Deep research will be available in Japan in the Japanese language, says Sam.
“This partnership with SoftBank will accelerate our vision for bringing transformative AI to some of the world’s most influential companies, starting with Japan,” says Sam.
The technology sector has been shaken by the recent announcement from Chinese newcomer DeepSeek that it has come up with very smart but low-cost AI
Masayoshi says Stargate will expand into Japan, as well as other nations.
The technology sector has been shaken by the recent announcement from Chinese newcomer DeepSeek that it has come up with very smart but low-cost AI.